The organisation I work for stopped all employees flying on Ryanair flights for business because of the various safety concerns, including the lack fuel. If they miss their landing a slot more often than not they do not have sufficient fuel to get to an alternative

I watched that too, then I went on Ryanair's website where they've rubbished the programme and printed a load of letters between themselves and Dispatches.

I've flown Ryanair many times, never had any problems. Flights always on time, no issues. Years ago I got a return flight to Girona for £8.02 all in. Everything. Flights were 1p, no taxes or charges and back then the booking fee was £4 per sector. Carry on baggage only and I didn't buy any of their coffee either!

Prices have gone up now, you have to pay £7 for web check in (how does that work then?!) and card charges have gone up too. I'd still fly with them though.

Legal requirement is to take off with trip fuel, fuel for an alternate airport, min contingency (5 mins or 5% trip fuel, whichever higher), and 30 minutes final reserve.

It's a bit more complicated than that (you can, for example, go without fuel for an alternate if landing is assured at your destination. It generally isn't, so doesn't happen often, if ever) but that's the précis.

Every airline in the UK (and Europe) is operating to this principle. EasyJet certainly did when I flew for them, and if you wanted to take extra fuel you had to annotate the reason on the flight plan. Having said that, if you filled it up for legitimate reasons (weather etc) questions were never asked. I fly for another European operator now and we take minimum fuel most of the time.

Much that I dislike Ryanair, I doubt it's different there unless they're being pressured into taking min fuel when there's good reason to take more. What is concerning is the attitude taken by the company towards unionisation of the workforce and the threat of dismissal of anyone who raises a safety concern.

If you're really worried about aviation safety, you'd be far better off objecting to the changes to flight time limitations, which allow for a 14 hour shift following 4 hours sleep.

Miss their landing spot and tell ATC that they're running on fumes - they'll get a free ride straight in on whatever runway they choose.

That will work up until they arrive somewhere with a full-on emergency just going off (burning plane on the runway à la Manchester or similar). Then the excrement will really hit the air-conditioning. Relying on others for your own safety will eventually bite you as the odds shorten with each success.

CaptainFlashheart - Member
Many airlines run on fumes and call it in. Most of them from Asia, sadly. 'Tis true.
Ryanair are scum. I stand by that.

I was in a Malaysia airlines flight from KL in the late nineties which was held for an hour above gatwick. I remember a sharp turn which made me pucker up and a quite sudden landing. Some years later the same flight appeared on TV as evidence the airline was doing this and I believe they were fined, and the rules were changed as mentioned above becuase if this IIRC. Apparently according to the program my plane was practically empty when it landed!

If they continue with their ways it will crash no doubt about that because the possibility is higher with higher number of planes they have and hopefully someone from his hometown, you know those trouble souls, will string him or his love ones up when that happens.

@flaperon.
As you clearly are fully qualified to answer my next question please do.
At the weekend we met some people at the races blah blah, anyhow this chap was a flight simulator training officer, or something along those lines. He appeared to know his shizzle, after chatting for a bit he mentioned a list of airlines he wouldn't fly with and had also banned his wife from flying with. This was due to the "lesser" training the pilots receive. Fact or fiction?

Concorde had a famous fuel emergency when they discovered a fuel leak on a flight from NY to LHR but rather than land at Shannon to refuel the pilot pushed on and landed at Heathrow then the engines cut out as it was taxiing to the stand.

BA came up with some impressive techno-bollocks about the angle of the fuel tanks on the ground and no-one really bothered much about it but legend has it that the plane was minutes away from falling out of the sky.

Pilot got fired.

All airlines do it, it's one of those fine calculations between safety and cost.

Ryan Air are in my opinion and in my direct experience the absolute worst and by some margin.

They may offer some cheap seats but they are the most aggressive in finding ways to charge you extra and if you don't book early they can and do charge high prices. The whole attitude and approach of the company stinks.

Separately, Flaperon I was under the impression that Ryanair was registered in Ireland rather than the UK because it allowed them to run operations in a way that would not be possible for an airline registered in the UK. Any insight on that?

Since the Channel 4 Dispatches programme (which previously used actors to promote equally false claims about Ryanair’s cabin crew) has published these false anonymous hearsay claims, and the bogus results of an unreliable, fabricated survey prepared by the European pilot trade union club, Ryanair has instructed its lawyers to issue legal proceedings against Channel 4 Dispatches for defamation and Ryanair looks forward to this matter being resolved in the Courts and the safety of Ryanair’s operations being thoroughly vindicated since the IAA has independently confirmed “Ryanair is on a par with the safest airlines in Europe” and the C4 Dispatches programme has produced no shred of evidence to undermine this independent verification of Ryanair’s outstanding safety.